C  37 


MEMORIAL 


OF 


CITY  OF  NEW  YORK. 


JANUARY  3,  1821. 
Printed  by  order  of  the  Senate  of  the  United  States. 


WASHINGTON: 

PUINTF.D  IIT  GALES  &  SEAT  O.N 


Avery  Architectural  and  Fine  Arts  Library 
Gift  of  Seymour  B.  Durst  Old  York  Library 


3 


C  37  ] 


MEMORIAL. 

To  the  Honorable  the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives  of  the 
United  States  in  Congress  assembled: 

The  Memorial  of  the  Subscribers,  Auctioneers  of  the  city  of  New 

York, 

RESPECTFULLY  SHEWETHI 

That  your  memorialists  are  engaged  in  an  extensive  business, 
whose  general  influence  upon  other  branches  of  trade  has  of  late 
become  a  subject  of  much  controversy.  Your  honorable  bodies  were, 
at  your  last  session,  petitioned,  by  those  who  consider  the  interests  of 
commerce  as  unfavorably  affected  by  the  great  extent  of  auction  sales, 
to  adopt  such  restrictive  measures,  as  would  tend  to  limit  or  suppress 
them.  On  the  failure  of  the  effort  at  that  time,  no  means  were  left 
unattempted,  by  which  the  discordant  interests  of  the  different 
classes  of  the  community  might  be  united  in  furtherance  of  this  en- 
terprize,  and  the  application  is  now  renewed,  supported  by  more 
powerful  influence,  and  urged  with  greater  zeal. 

Your  memorialists  respectfully  disclaim  the  intention  of  urging 
their  unimportant  interests  upon  the  attention  of  your  honorable 
bodies:  their  remonstrance  is  grounded  upon  principles  distinct  from 
any  motives  of  private  consideration,  which  they  are  aware  would 
have  but  little  influence  on  your  decision.  Their  object  in  addressing 
you,  is  to  give  such  practical  information  as  w  ill  lead  to  a  just  esti- 
mate of  the  nature  of  their  business,  and  correct  the  misconceptions 
that  may  have  prejudiced  the  inquiry.  The  result  of  your  delibera- 
tions on  this  important  subject  will  materially  affect  the  whole 
course  of  trade.  A  system,  w  hich  has  gradually  grown  into  import- 
ance — which  has  been  improved,  matured,  and,  they  might  almost 
say,  perfected — which  necessity  originated,  and  acknowledged  ad- 
vantages have  continued  and  enlarged,  will  be  established  as  a  safe 
and  salutary  medium  of  sale,  or  suppressed  as  a  dangerous  and  per- 
nicious agency.  Your  memorialists  cheerfully  submit  their  interests 
to  the  decision  of  your  honorable  bodies  on  the  merits  of  thif»  edition, 
and  would  humbly  suggest,  whether  a  subject  of  this  morutrt  should 
not  be  approached  with  respect  and  delicacy;  whether  it  does  not 
merit  the  most  careful  deliberation,  and  whether  the  argument  and 
evidence  that  involve  the  interests  of  the  whole  should  not  outweigh 
the  clamors  of  a  few. 

Your  memorialists  respectfully  request  the  indulgent  attention  of 
your  honorable  bodies  to  a  brief  exposition  of  the  general  nature  of 
their  business,  and  of  their  manner  of  conducting  it;  (and  to  the  cor- 
rectness of  their  representations  they  pledge  their  individual  and  col- 
lective respectability.) 


[  37  ] 


Your  honorable  bodies  will  perceive,  from  this  detail  of  their  gene- 
ral practice,  that  there  is  nothing  to  warrant  the  charges  of  fraud 
and  deception,  which  have  been  urged  against  sales  at  auction,  and 
that,  in  yielding  to  popular  impressions,  derived  from  the  objectionable 
mode  of  conducting  the  business  which  formerly  prevailed,  the  op- 
ponents of  the  trade  must  have  overlooked  its  actual  importance  and 
respectability.  Were  evidence  necessary  to  disprove  these  calumnies, 
it  would  be  found  in  the  unlimited  confidence  reposed  in  your  memo- 
rialists, and  the  slightest  investigation  would  have  corrected  a  posi- 
tion at  variance  with  the  very  nature  of  the  business. 

Your  memorialists,  in  the  statement  offered  to  your  honorable  bodies, 
have  confined  themselves  to  that  branch  of  the  trade  which  has  been 
represented  as  productive  of  the  most  extensive  injury — that  is,  the 
public  sale  of  imported  dry  goods.  Other  commodities  of  every  kind 
are  sold  under  similar  regulations;  it  would  be  obtrusive  upon  your 
patience  to  particularize  each. 

Sales  of  dry  goods  are  made  at  auction  by  the  package  or  by  the 
piece,  and  this  is  the  only  important  distinction  to  be  observed  in  all 
the  variety  of  the  trade.  Package  sales  being  more  important  in 
amount,  and  more  attractive  by  the  assortments  of  merchandise  they 
combine,  excite  most  interest,  and  are  attended  with  greatest  com- 
petition. When  the  sale  is  of  magnitude,  it  is  generally  advertised 
in  the  principal  commercial  cities,  with  an  enumeration  of  the  articles 
to  be  sold.  Printed  catalogues  are  prepared,  specifying  the  term  of 
credit,  with  the  other  conditions  of  sale,  and  detailing  the  contents 
of  each  package,  the  number  of  pieces,  the  varieties  of  quality,  by 
number  or  otherwise,  and  the  lengths,  all  of  which  are  guaranteed 
to  the  purchasers.  The  widths  are  also,  in  some  instances,  specified, 
but  always  with  a  reservation  expressed  in  the  conditions  of  the  sale 
on  the  printed  catalogues,  or  published  by  verbal  explanation,  that 
there  is  on  that  point  no  warrantee,  except  that  the  goods  not  exhi- 
bited shall  correspond  in  this,  as  well  as  in  every  other  respect,  with 
the  samples  shown.  This  exception  is  made  to  the  general  guarantee 
to  the  purchaser,  as  well  to  protect  the  seller  from  arbitrary  and  un- 
reasonable claims,  as  to  establish  the  general  rule,  that  no  descrip- 
tion of  width  can  be  depended  upon  with  as  much  security  as  the  evi- 
dence of  actual  observation;  it  being  well  understood,  that  British 
cotton  goods  are  universally  invoiced  at  more  than  their  actual  width, 
whether  they  are  of  the  finest  or  most  inferior  quality,  put  up  for 
public  or*private  sale.  The  misrepresentation  has  become  sanctioned 
by  unftersal  practice,  and  is  innocent  because  notorious.  It  is  no 
more  supposed  that  goods  invoiced  as  6-4  of  a  yard,  and  measuring 
but  a  yard,  will  produce  more  in  consequence  of  the  exaggeration, 
than  that  the  United  States'  duty  will  be  calculated  by  the  custom- 
house on  the  invoice  width,  rather  than  the  actual  measurement. 

The  packages  are  arranged  in  lots,  corresponding  with  their  num- 
bers on  the  catalogue,  and  are  exhibited,  sometimes  two  entire  days 
before  the  sale,  sometimes  bat  one:  the  length  of  the  exhibition  being 


5 


[  87  ] 


regulated  by  the  magnitude  of  the  sale,  When  the  goods  are  pre- 
pared for  inspection,  the  purchasers  are  invited,  by  a  public  notice 
in  the  papers,  to  examine  them.  Where  it  is  necessary  for  an  advan- 
tageous examination,  whole  packages  are  opened  and  displayed; 
where  it  can  be  made  with  more  convenience  from  samples,  one  or 
more  pieces  of  each  quality  is  exhibited;  and  where  there  are  many 
packages  exactly  corresponding,  one  only  is  shewn.  Pattern  cards 
are  exhibited,  displaying  the  assortment  of  colors,  &c.  The  purchaser 
receives  every  information  and  facility  that  can  contribute  to  his  con- 
venience and  protect  him  from  mistake.  The  goods  are  arranged 
with  so  much  attention  to  the  accommodation  of  the  purchasers,  that 
three  or  four  hundred  packages  may  be  examined  with  care  and  ac- 
curacy in  one  day.  On  the  day  of  sale  the  purchasers  assemble, 
each  prepared  with  a*  catalogue,  marked  with  his  estimate  of  the  va- 
lue of  the  articles  wanted;  o  practice  that  not  only  guards  the  buyer 
against  any  disadvantageous  excitement  which  competition  naturally 
produces,  and  refers  him  to  the  deliberate  opinion  formed  upon  careful 
examination  before  the  sale,  but  also  promotes  a  general  knowledge 
of  merchandise  in  every  variety,  and  creates  a  useful  register  of  the 
fluctuations  of  the  market,  as  these  catalogues  are  generally  preserved, 
with  notes  in  the  margin,  of  the  prices  at  which  every  article  has 
been  sold.  At  the  commencement  of  the  sale,  the  conditions  are  re- 
capitulated by  the  auctioneer,  among  which  it  is  a  provision,  that  no 
allowance  will  be  made  for  damage  or  deficiency  after  the  goods  have 
left  the  city;  a  regulation  at  once  equitable  and  necessarj ,  as  other- 
wise there  would  be  no  protection  for  the  auctioneer  in  the  settlement 
of  his  accounts,  or  for  the  seller  against  the  fraudulent  claims  of  stran- 
gers. This  being,  however,  at  all  times  a  declared  condition,  the  publi- 
city of  the  rule  ensures  the  prompt  examination  of  the  goods.  All  mer- 
chandise so  1-d  at  public  auction  is  warranted  by  the  auctioneer  to  be 
perfect  in  the  manufacture,  free  from  damage  and  imperfection,  of  the 
quantity  specified,  and  of  fair  and  merchantable  character,  as  re- 
gards the  description  of  w  idth  and  size:  for  this  the  auctioneer  is 
held  liable,  as  well  as  for  every  delusion  calculated  to  deceive  the 
senses  or  betray  the  judgment.  The  auctioneer  is  not  only  legally 
and  by  common  practice  responsible  for  the  correctness  of  his  mer- 
chandise, but  it  is  deemed  a  point  of  honor  and  of  common  justice 
to  expose  every  art  by  which  the  interests  of  the  purchaser  would  be 
sacrificed:  and  it  is  no  uncommon  thing  for  the  buyer  to  acquire  the 
first  information  of  fraud  from  the  auctioneer  himself.  This  security 
to  the  purchaser  is,  however,  necessarily  subject  to  limitation,  and 
public  notice  is  always  given,  that  claims  of  all  kinds  must  be  made 
within  a  specified  period.  Immediate  redress  is  obtained  for  deficien- 
cies and  damages  reported  within  that  time. 

The  deficiencies  being  properly  certified,  are  promptly  allowed. 
The  damages  are  settled  by  return  of  the  goods,  or  by  the  appraise- 
ment of  disinterested  persons,  appointed  by  the  auctioneer  and  the 
purchaser.    The  period  established  for  the  required  report  of  claims 


C  37  ] 


6 


is  a  matter  of  convention  between  the  auctioneer  and  the  buyers  at 
the  sale,  it  being,  however,  understood,  that  errors  of  all  kinds,  which 
arise  from  the  neglect  or  inaccuracy  of  the  seller  or  his  agent,  will 
at  any  time  be  corrected. 

The  nature  of  this  business,  by  which  sales  are  effected  and  ac- 
counts closed  with  so  much  despatch,  absolutely  requires  that  the 
stipulations  specified  should  be  rigidly  enforced,  and  those  regulations 
cannot  be  deemed  disadvantageous,  by  which  care,  punctuality,  and 
promptitude,  are  promoted. 

Your  memorialists  have  entered  into  a  more  particular  detail  of 
this  part  of  their  system,  because  the  frauds  of  British  agents  and 
others  are  alleged  as  the  prominent  objection  against  auction  sales. 

Practical  evidence  is  not  wanting  that  imposition  is  most  effectually 
guarded  against  by  the  very  means  which  it  is  said  encourage  and 
promote  it.  The  average  amount  of  deductions  made  from  package 
sales  of  British  dry  goods,  for  claims  of  every  nature,  will  not  equal 
the  sixteenth  of  one  per  cent,  and  it  is  rarely  that  any  other  causes 
of  complaint  occur,  than  an  accidental  deficiency  or  an  unavoidable 
damage.  Claims  based  upon  the  suspicion  or  the  discovery  of  fraud, 
are  so  unusual,  and  would  tend  so  much  to  the  discredit  of  the  propri- 
etor of  the  goods,  that  many,  if  no*"  all  of  your  memorialists  would 
esteem  it  sufficient  grounds  to  decline  the  transaction  of  further 
business  with  the  person  attempting  the  deceit.  Your  honorable 
bodies  will  perceive,  from  this  simple  statement,  how  groundless  is  the 
charge  against  auction  sales,  of  encouraging  deception,  and  that  the 
evil  which  is  made  the  basis  of  all  the  objections  against  them,  is  but 
imaginary.  Your  memorialists  have  detailed  every  part  of  their 
practice  in  the  management  of  package  sales,  which  can  be  of  any  im- 
portance in  establishing  a  correct  understanding  of  the  nature  of  their 
business.  Piece  sales  are  conducted  on  the  same  general  principles, 
but  differ  in  many  particulars.  Package  sales  are  resorted  to  when 
entire  cargoes  are  to  be  sold,  or  where  the  quantity  of  goods  is  too 
great  to  be  disposed  of  in  detail.  Large  assortments  of  merchandise 
are  daily  offered  at  the  piece  sales,  where  packages  are  opened  and 
the  goods  sold  in  small  or  large  lots,  as  may  most  tend  to  the  interest 
of  the  seller,  and  the  convenience  of  the  purchaser;  these  sales  are 
regular  and  systematic,  being  held  by  each  auctioneer  of  extensive 
business  on  two  or  more  specific  days  in  each  week,  and  are  princi- 
pally depended  upon  by  the  retailers,  as  well  as  the  larger  dealers  for 
their  uniform  supplies:  they  are  held  under  the  same  implied  regula- 
tions which  govern  sales  by  the  package.  Every  article  is  opened 
and  exhibited  on  shelves  on  the  morning  of  the  sale.  A  sample  piece 
of  every  package,  as  it  is  offered  by  the  auctioneer,  is  displayed  upon 
a  counter  for  examination,  and  several  others  distributed  among  the 
company  in  the  original  folds;  the  rest  of  the  package,  if  of  similar 
quality,  is  sold  in  order,  but  the  same  process  takes  place  whenever 
any  difference  in  value  exists,  or  where  the  accommodation  of  the 
purchasers  makes  it  necessary.    Ample  time  is  given  during  the  sale 


7  [  37  ] 

to  examine  accurately  every  article  as  it  is  offered,  and  the  purchaser, 
in  every  respect  is  secured  against  error  and  imposition,  by  an  open 
and  unlimited  display  of  the  merchandise,  and  by  the  public  procla- 
mation of  every  circumstance  known  to  the  auctioneer,  which  may 
tend  to  enhance  or  depreciate  its  value.  Where  concealment  has  been 
used  by  the  proprietor  of  the  goods,  it  is  necessarily  detected  in  their 
free  exposure  to  inspection.  Articles  imported,  of  a  specific  length, 
which  are  sold  by  the  piece,  are  guaranteed  of  the  usual  length.  By 
these  means  the  purchaser  has  the  double  advantage  of  being  allow- 
ed, in  the  first  instance  to  examine  minutely,  and  of  afterwards  being 
relieved  if  he  has  been  unwarily  deceived. 

It  is  a  general  regulation,  that  claims  for  deductions  must  be  made 
the  day  after  the  sale;  but  they  are  generally  allowed,  if  notice  is 
given  before  the  settlement;  these  precautions  operate  only  upon  ob- 
vious damage,  or  upon  deficiencies  which  are  evident  or  might  with 
ease  have  been  ascertained;  they  are  intended  to  guard  against  the 
neglect  of  the  purchaser,  not  to  protect  the  frauds  of  the  seller.  In 
cases  where  it  can  be  satisfactorily  proved  that  goods  have  been  put 
up  with  intent  to  deceive,  no  exertion  is  wanting  on  the  part  of  the 
auctioneer  to  remedy  any  injury  sustained  in  consequence. 

A  credit  of  three,  four,  or  six  months  is  usually  given  on  sales  by 
the  piece,  where  the  amount  purchased  exceeds  one  hundred  dollars, 
and  approved  security  is  always  required  by  the  auctioneer.  Legal 
interest  is  allow  ed  for  cash  payments,  and  men  of  limited  means,  by  a 
combination  of  their  purchases,  secure  the  credit  which  is  at  all  times 
convenient  and  frequently  necessary;  their  united  responsibility  being 
admitted  for  amounts,  for  which  either  individual  would  not  be  ac- 
cepted. When  it  is  considered  that  these  transactions  take  place 
daily,  and  that  the  supplies  so  obtained  are  essential  to  the  support 
of  numerous  inferior  establishments,  the  importance  and  value  of  the 
accommodation  will  be  evident. 

Your  memorialists  respectfully  represent  that  the  system  of  public 
sales,  in  theory  combining  advantages  and  facilities  which  establish 
its  utility  in  extensive  markets,  is  attended  in  practice  with  that  dis- 
patch, accuracy,  and  convenience,  which  alone  have  extended  its  ope- 
rations and  confirmed  its  necessity.  It  has  been  long  the  honorable 
distinction  of  our  commercial  transactions,  that  frauds  on  the  revenue 
are  scarcely  known;  it  cannot  be  doubted  that  auction  sales  have  had 
an  influence  in  establishing  the  chat-after  for  mercantile  purity  i  a— 
much  as  they  encourage  so  strict  and  impartial  an  examination  of  all 
imported  merchandise,  that  if  imposition  should  elude  the  vigilance  of 
custom  house  officers,  it  cannot  escape  the  industrious  observation  of 
a  trading  community,  which  is  ever  watchful  to  detect  fraud,  and 
prompt  in  proclaiming  it.  Let  not  then  auction  sales  be  charged  with 
the  encouragement  of  a  species  of  iniquity,  which  does  not  in  truth 
exist,  and  which  it  is  at  least  presumable  they  have  had  an  influence 
in  suppressing. 


C  37  ] 


8 


As  the  public  revenue  is  guarded  from  injury  by  the  intervention 
of  auction  sales,  so  also  do  tbe  purchaser  and  consumer  obtain,  through 
this  impartial  medium,  undoubted  assurance  of  the  security  of  their 
transactions:  no  artful  mode  of  exhibition  can  be  used  to  ensnare  the 
inexperienced:  the  examination  of  goods  is  deliberate  and  cautious, 
and  it  is  fully  in  the  power  of  the  buyer  to  protect  himself*  against 
the  possibility  of  error.  He  deals  not,  as  in  private  contract,  with 
one  whose  interest  it  is  to  deceive;  his  bargain  is  made  with  an  un- 
biassed agent,  whose  interest  it  is  to  oppose  deception,  and  in  all  cases 
of  injury  he  locL*  for  redress  from  a  disinterested  source.  Goods  of 
an  inferior  quality,  of  cheap  and  temporary  dye,  of  specious  appear- 
ance and  slight  fabric,  may  be  collected  and  exhibited  as  evidences 
of  deception  encouraged  by  auction  sales.  Your  memorialists  re- 
spectfully represent,  that  the  evidence  submitted  by  them  to  your 
honourable  bodies  must  (if  admitted  as  correct)  be  conclusive,  that 
merchandise  exhibited  for  public  sale,  cannot  be  estimated  otherw  ise 
than  at  its  actual  value,  or,  if  its  apparent  value  be  heightened  by  ar- 
tifical  means,  that  the  responsibility  of  the  auctioneer  is  pledged  for 
the  exposure  of  the  artifice.  What  is  it  then  that  encourages  the  in- 
troduction into  our  market  of  articles  of  worthless  fabric?  undoubted- 
ly it  must  be  their  currency  with  the  consumer,  who  has  no  immedi- 
ate and  direct  dealings  with  the  auctioneer,  but  obtains  them  from 
the  jobber,  who,  himself  perfectly  aware  of  their  intrinsic  value,  pro- 
motes their  importation  by  being  the  principal  agent  in  their  distri- 
bution. Your  memorialists  do  not  by  any  means  intend  to  repel  this 
charge,  by  the  imputation  of  umvorthy  motives  to  any  other  class  of 
men;  they  are  of  opinion  that  goods  of  inferior  fabric  are  necessary 
for  the  consumption  of  the  country:  and  that  the  prices  at  which  they 
are  sold  universally  correspond  with  their  value.  The  dressing,  the 
glazing,  and  decorations  employed  in  the  preparation  of  inferior  Bri- 
tish manufactures  for  this  and  other  markets,  are  so  notorious,  that 
they  do  not  deceive  the  most  inexperienced.  These  are  not  new  in- 
ventions, nor  have  the  humbler  classes  of  the  community  but  lately 
learned  to  clothe  themselves  in  articles  of  cheap  but  shewy  fabric. 
The  custom,  however,  is  falling  into  disuse,  and  a  taste  for  more  sim- 
ple and  substantial  merchandise  begins  to  prevail.  As  far  as  re- 
gards the  employment  of  fraud  in  the  sale  of  goods  through  the  me- 
dium of  auctions,  it  presents  itself  so  rarely  to  the  observation  of 
your  memorialists  that  they  cannot  but  doubt  its  prevalence,  and 
would  rather  from  their  experience  esteem  it  a  matter  of  congratula- 
tion that  the  country  merchant  can  come  into  the  market  in  the  con- 
fidence of  ascertained  good  faith  and  fairness,  than  believe  there  can 
be  reason  to  call  either  in  question. 

Your  memorialists  respectfully  represent,  that  the  periodical  ex- 
posure of  large  and  general  assortments  of  merchandise  at  public 
sale  must  have  a  tendency  to  promote  the  convenience  of  those  who 
resort  to  the  great  commercial  marts  for  their  supplies,  while  it 
benefits  the  importer  by  the  consequent  increase  of  competition.  If 


C  37  ] 


distant  purchasers  are  attracted  by  public  notice  to  large  and  valua- 
ble sales  where  they  may  carefully  examine  the  assortments  that  are 
offered,  effect  their  purchases,  and  accomplish  all  their  business  in  so 
short  a  period;  if  the  holders  of  goods  may  with  so  much  dispatch 
and  certainty  complete  the  sale  of  whole  invoices  at  the  current  mar- 
ket prices,  with  full  protection  against  all  risk,  and  secure  the  ad- 
vantages of  prompt  remittances,  accommodations  and  benefits  must 
result  that  would  at  least  counterbalance  many  evils,  if  indeed  the 
existence  of  any  had  been  proved.  When  new  plans  or  principles  are 
suggested,  encouraged,  and  established,  when  men  of  different  inter- 
ests and  views  coincide  in  their  adoption,  when,  after  long  and  suc^ 
cessful  experiment,  they  are  confirmed  and  become  universal,  it  is  a 
common  and  reasonable  inference  that  their  popularity  is  the  result 
of  admitted  utility.  On  what  other  reasoning  can  it  be  explained 
that,  with  a  powerful  interest  in  opposition,  auctions  have  become  in 
most  of  our  commercial  cities  so  considerable  a  medium  of  sale,  that 
both  classes  of  the  mercantile  community,  the  buyers  and  severs, 
have  united  in  supporting  them?  There  can  be  no  doubt  that  when 
public  convenience  no  longer  requires  their  interference,  they  will  na- 
turally and  rapidly  decline  without  legislative  interposition. 

To  those  whose  operations  are  conducted  on  an  humble  scale,  the 
amount  of  whose  purchases  must  necessarily  be  regulated  by  their 
daily  sales,  the  suppression  of  auctions  would  be  a  fatal  and  distress- 
ing blow.  This  numerous  class  is  dependent  on  public  sales  for  their 
regular  assortments,  their  responsibility,  though  not  adequate  to  pur- 
chases of  magnitude,  is  yet  sufficient  by  mutual  union  and  support 
for  their  small  but  frequent  obligations:  having  an  established  credit, 
they  are  assisted  in  the  advantageous  employment  of  their  small  ca- 
pital, while  their  intercourse  with  the  auctioneer  gives  him  that  con  - 
stant information,  which  is  his  best  security,  and  insures  the  pru- 
dence of  their  engagements.  In  common  with  the  country  merchant, 
they  owe  to  auctions  the  advantage  of  procuring  their  supplies  with- 
out the  necessity  of  intermediate  profits,  which  are  evidently  a  tax 
upon  the  consumer:  they  buy  their  goods  at  auction,  and  the  15  or 
20  per  cent,  which  would  have  formed  the  profits  of  an  intervening 
class,  is  saved  to  that  part  of  the  population  by  whom  the  difference 
would  be  most  sensibly  felt.  The  country  merchants  go  into  the  mar- 
ket on  the  best  terms.  The  labour  and  difficulty  of  their  purchases 
is  reduced;  they  select  from  the  dailpassortments  their  necessary  and 
regular  supply,  in  quantities  to  suit  their  convenience.  The  price  of 
commodities  is  equalized  between  the  city  and  country  consumer  and 
reduced  to  both;  and  the  country  gains  in  the  saving  of  the  time,  the 
industry,  and  resources,  of  her  most  valuable  citizens.  But,  it  is  not 
only  in  their  immediate  advantages,  that  auctions  are  a  public  bene- 
fit: the  influence  Of  the  great  body  of  strangers,  invited  by  their  fa- 
cilities, is  profitably  felt  in  every  department  of  useful  industry,  and 
imparts  activity  and  animation  to  every  branch  of  trade.  If  then  the 
population  of  the  country  is,  through  auctions,  supplied  with  comforts 
9 


C  37  3 


10 


and  necessaries  at  the  cheapest  rate;  if  a  saving  be  effected  in  the 
most  valuable  resources  of  the  nation,  of  what  moment  is  it  that  a 
wealthy  and  influential  class  of  men,  who  are  provoked  to  hostility 
by  the  loss  of  a  productive  business,  denounce  auctions  as  a  public  ca- 
lamity and  influence  others  to  unite  with  them? 

Your  memorialists  respectfully  represent  that  to  the  influence  of 
auction  sales  our  domestic  manufactures  owe  their  introduction  to  ge- 
neral notice,  and  that  encouragement  and  aid,  which  has  in  some  mea- 
sure overcome  the  prejudices  that  opposed  their  advancement.  That  the 
valuable  products  of  native  industry  which  public  opinion  discouraged 
and  condemned  were  forced  into  use  and  estimation.  To  the  manu- 
facturer the  aid  of  the  auction  business  as  a  medium  of  sale  is  almost 
indispensable:  a  law  of  our  State  has  been  obtained  for  their  encou- 
ragement, by  which  the  sale  of  domestic  goods  has  been  exempted  from 
duty:  and  the  great  disproportion  in  amount  between  the  publ'C  and 
private  sale  of  our  home  manufactures,  sufficiently  disproves  the  sup- 
position that  auctions  operate  to  their  disadvantage.  Those  manufac- 
turing establishments  whose  operations  are  sustained  by  great  re* 
sources,  may  perhaps  view  with  indifference  the  decision  of  this  ques- 
tion; but  to  those  of  humbler  means,  whose  business  is  almost  exclu-* 
sively  transacted  through  the  agency  of  auctioneers,  it  is  of  vast  im- 
portance. The  small  resources  that  would  be  quickly  exhausted  in 
limited  enterprize,  are  by  the  aid  of  auctions  continued  in  active  cir- 
culation. The  distress  consequent  upon  the  failure  of  employment, 
during  the  tedious  disposal  of  the  merchandise  and  collection  of  the 
proceeds,  is  prevented  by  the  promptitude  of  the  sale  and  payments. 
The  manufacturer  is  aided  by  the  judgment  and  experience  of  his 
agent,  which  renders  his  presence  and  attendance  unnecessary:  so 
that  his  goods  are  sold,  the  raw  material  purchased  or  his  funds  re- 
mitted, while  there  is  no  interruption  to  his  industry,  and  the  time 
and  labour  are  saved  which  would  be  consumed  by  making  sales  of 
his  merchandise  in  detail. 

It  is  objected  against  auction  sales,  that  they  have  produced  a  re- 
volution in  the  commerce  of  the  country  and  originated  the  difficulties 
which  it  is  said  now  oppress  it.  Your  memorialists  would  respect- 
fully urge  that  the  decline  of  business  may  be  attributed  to  more  pro- 
bable and  evident  causes  xhan  the  extension  of  auction  sales,  which 
has  in  fact  resulted  from  the  same  circumstances  that  produced  the 
decline  in  our  commercial  prosperity,  and  has  tended  greatly  to  re- 
lieve the  general  distress.  It  is  to  the  extravagant  introduction  of 
foreign  fabrics  after  the  late  war,  when  profitable  sales  allured  to  im- 
positions, far  exceeding  the  ordinary  consumption:  to  the  fall  in  the 
cost  of  good*  abroad,  when  our  merchants  were  overburthened  with 
a  heavy  stock,  to  the  injudicious  extension  of  business  at  a  period  of 
hazard  and  uncertainty:  to  the  Joss  of  several  important  and  profita- 
ble branches  of  trade  which  employed  our  ships  and  seamen,  and  en- 
riched our  merchants  and  our  country,  but  of  which  the  universal  re- 
storation of  peace  throughout  Europe  deprived  us:  to  the  extensive 
scale  on  which  the  precarious  experiment  of  domestic  manufactures 


11 


[  37  } 


was  commenced,  and  to  the  embarrassments  of  a  disordered  exchange, 
that  commercial  distress  is  to  be  referred:  and  practical  men  are 
aware  that  the  interference  of  auction  sales  alone  could  have  prevent- 
ed a  more  extensive  ruin,  by  their  forced  distribution  of  goods  through- 
out the  country  at  a  rate  which  relieved  our  importers  though  at  an 
admitted  sacrifice.  Such  were  the  causes  which  produced  the  gradual 
decline  of  our  commercial  prosperity  and  created  that  reaction  in  our 
mercantile  situation  from  whose  shock  we  are  but  now  recovering.  But, 
on  what  grounds  can  it  be  urged  that  the  present  character  of  our  trade 
is  ruinous?  The  day  of  commercial  disaster  has  passed  away  with  the 
extravagant  enterprize  that  produced  it,  and  commerce  reviving, 
asks  but  freedom  from  restraint  and  liberty  of  action.  A  safe  and 
advantageous  internal  trade  employs  the  capital  and  industry  of  one 
part  of  the  mercantile  community,  while  our  foreign  intercourse,  es- 
tablished upon  secure  and  beneficial  principles,  invites  the  enterprize 
of  the  other.  The  mass  of  old  goods,  the  surplus  of  former  excessive 
importations,  has  been  disposed  of,  and  a  field  opened  for  a  lucrative 
trade.  Commercial  credit  and  confidence  are  established,  and  though 
our  own  produce  but  scantily  rewards  the  labour  of  the  husbandman 
(an  evil  certainly  not  attributable  to  auction  sales)  yet  foreign  man- 
ufactures and  produce  generally  have  fallen  proportionably,  while 
the  improvement  of  our  domestic  exchanges  denotes  a  composed  and 
settled  state  of  things.  Our  importers  have  during  the  last  season 
enjoyed  a  trade  that  has  well  rewarded  their  enterprize.  Our  mar- 
ket has  been  enlivened  by  strangers  from  every  quarter  of  the  Union, 
and  presented  a  scene  of  activity  and  successful  industry  that  suffi- 
ciently relieves  auctions  from  the  charge  of  having  effected  a  "  ruinous 
change  in  the  character  of  our  trade." 

Your  memorialists  are  represented  as  holding  an  important  and 
dangerous  monopoly.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  their  influence  in  de- 
stroying the  power  of  monopolizing,  that  renders  them  of  public  ser- 
vice. They  are  a  barrier  to  that  inordinate  warmth  of  speculation, 
which  is  in  direct  opposition  to  the  principles  of  a  secure  and  mode- 
rate trade:  they  prevent  the  involvement  of  capital  in  the  attempt  to 
engross  scarce  and  desirable  articles  and  those  ruinous  combinations 
of  extensive  dealers  which  frequently  distress  a  whole  community. 

From  these  considerations  your  memorialists  respectfully  remon- 
strate against  the  imposition  of  legisjative  restrictions  upon  a  busi- 
ness whose  advantages  have  been  carefully  thrown  into  the  shade,  while 
none  but  groundless  objections  have  been  urged  against  it.  Public 
sales,  in  their  general  character,  are  no  longer  the  resort  of  the  ne- 
cessitous, who  are  compelled  to  the  sacrifice  of  property  by  the  pres- 
sure of  distress.  Buyer  and  seller  now  meet  on  neutral  ground  for 
their  mutual  advantage.  Auctions  are  employed  as  the  most  secure 
and  convenient  medium  for  the  sale  and  purchase  of  merchandise  at 
the  current  market  rate,  and  any  addition  to  the  present  charges, 
however  trifling,  so  far  from  being  a  productive  source  of  public  re- 
venue, would  force  the  business  into  another  channel,  introduce  the 
practice  of  selling  inconsiderable  samples  at  auction,  by  which  the 


[37] 


12 


prices  of  large  parcels  at  private  sale  would  be  regulated,  encourage 
frauds  on  the  revenue,  and  operate  directly  as  a  tax  upon  the  yeo- 
manry of  the  country. 

All  which  is  respectfully  submitted.    And  your  memorialists,  &c, 


Hoffman,  Glass,  &  Co. 
J.  k  P.  Hone,  &  Co. 
Boggs,  Thompson,  &  Co. 
Irving,  Smith  &  Holly. 
David  Dunham,  &  Co. 
Samuel  Paxton. 
C.  &  G.  Bartow,  &  Co. 
Hicks,  Lawrence,  &  Co. 
Laurence  &  Willard. 
Robert  McMennomy. 
Charles  Byrne. 
James  Seton. 
Oliver  G.  Kane. 
E.  Burrill. 
John  T.  Boyd. 


Franklin  &  Minturn. 

Leggett,  Shotwell,  &  Co* 

J.  Heard. 

P.  L.  Mills,  &  Co. 

James  Bleecker. 

C.  G.  Fontaine. 

McCarty  &  Van  Antwerp. 

W.  F.  Pell,  &  Co. 

R.  Duncan,  &  Co. 

L.  Seaman,  &  Co. 

J.  Nald,  &  Co. 

W.  W.  Wetmore,  &  Co. 

M.  Myers,  &  Co. 

Laurence  Power,  &  Co. 

Ebenezer  Irving. 


